 Georgia plays the second of consecutive road games in a Wednesday night contest at Tennessee. These two teams complete their regular-season series on Saturday, March 2 in Athens.

The Bulldogs arrive at this game with a 10-11 overall record, 4-4 in the SEC, having rebounded from an 0-3 start in league play with three straight wins and four in their past five games. Most recently, Georgia won 67-56 at South Carolina on Saturday.

The win in Columbia was highlighted by the usual scoring honors from Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who pumped in 19 points to lead Georgia for the 19th time this season. The Bulldogs, however, got unexpected contribution from freshman Kenny Gaines, who scored all 11 of his points in the second half, as Georgia built its lead into double digits. Gaines had not previously scored more than eight points in any game. His 11 points led eight different second-half scorers for Georgia.

 Caldwell-Pope's 19-point effort at Carolina capped a successful week for the sophomore guard, who was named Monday as the SEC's Player of the Week. Last Wednesday, he recorded his third double-double (20 pts., 10 rebs.) of the season, including four points and two key rebounds in the final 1:07, as Georgia defeated Auburn 57-49 in Athens. He's the only Bulldog to have started all 21 games and to be averaging over 30 minutes per game (33.5, 3rd in SEC). He ranks among the SEC leaders in nine of the categories for which individual stats are kept.

 Georgia's win Saturday at South Carolina marked the program's first 3-game SEC win streak in two years. On Wednesday, the Bulldogs will shoot for their first 4-game win streak in conference play since the 2003 season. They will do so, however, at a venue that has produced just a single victory (2011) in the past 11 tries.

 The Bulldogs return home for their next two SEC contests: Saturday vs. Texas A&M (which UGA defeated 59-52 on Jan. 26 in College Station) and next Tuesday vs. Alabama.

 Wednesday's game is the 147th all-time meeting between Georgia and Tennessee in basketball. Tennessee leads the series, which began in 1913 and has been renewed annually since the 1951 season, by a 92-54 count.

 Georgia has had little success against Tennessee in recent years, winning just five of the past 20 meetings. Bulldog teams under Mark Fox, however, have split six matchups against the Volunteers.

 These two teams split their series last season. Georgia took a 57-53 overtime decision in Athens while UT won 73-62 in Knoxville 2 1/2 weeks later. In 2011, the visiting team won each time in the series.

 Georgia shoots for its fourth straight SEC win tonight, which would be the longest for the program since the 2003 season. The longest win streak, period, of the Mark Fox era is a 9-game run in the 2010-11 season. In the 2001 season, Georgia rang off six consecutive SEC wins, equaling win streaks put together by the 1992-93 teams (spanning both seasons) and also the SEC championship team of 1990.

 A month ago, Georgia began its SEC schedule with an RPI rating of 205. The Bulldogs enter tonight's game with an RPI of 130. Why the significant jump? Mostly because of Georgia's win on Jan. 25 at Texas A&M, which was the team's first win over a Top 100 RPI team, and on the road, to boot. Georgia's strength of schedule rating is currently 44th.

 The South Carolina game marked the first time since the Florida A&M game on Dec. 29 that Georgia had more than two players reach double figures in scoring. That game was also Georgia's best-shooting effort (58.1%) in an SEC game since a Jan. 15, 2011 victory at Ole Miss in which the Bulldogs shot 63.5 percent.

 Right now, Georgia has just one player (KCP at 17.5 ppg) averaging in double-digit scoring. Not only is it the only SEC school with such a distinction, but that also makes it the only Bulldog team of the past 50 years with just a single double-figure scorer...

 Four different players have led Georgia in scoring this season: KCP, Vincent Williams, Nemi Djurisic and Charles Mann. Eight different Bulldogs have taken turns being the 2nd-leading scorer. Most frequent among those is the freshman Mann, who has owned that distinction seven times...

 Georgia has used 12 different starting lineups this season. The one constant through all 12 lineups was, of course, has been Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. Five other teammates (both Williamses, Morris, Florveus and Djurisic) now have double-digit starts.

 Caldwell-Pope led Georgia in rebounding as a freshman (5.2) last season. Barring something unforeseen, he'll repeat as the team's top board man. What's more impressive about his production this season is that he's rebounding mostly from the `2' guard position, compared to 2012, when he played primarily at the `3' spot.

About the Schedule
As part of the new 18-game Southeastern Conference schedule, the Bulldogs will face former Eastern Division foes Kentucky and Vanderbilt just once. It will be the first time since 1964 that Georgia has not played home-and-home series with these two longstanding foes and, for 20 years, Eastern Division rivals. In exchange for those two contests, the Bulldogs will now pick up a series with new member Texas A&M and renew a 2-game annual series with Alabama for the first time since 1992.

The addition of Texas A&M and Missouri has also added another day of competition to the post-season SEC Tournament, slated for March 13-17 in Nashville, Tenn. The Nos. 11-14 seeds in the final regular-season standings will play a doubleheader on Wednesday, with the tournament resuming its traditional schedule Thursday. It's conceivable that a team could capture the SEC Tournament championship by winning games on five consecutive days.

KCP One of UGA's Best Ever
Sophomore guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope returns as one of the SEC's top players. Among his freshman-year highlights included:
 He earned Freshman All-SEC honors in his first season of 2012.
 KCP ranked second among all Bulldogs in scoring and led them in rebounding, minutes and steals.
 His 422 points were the fifth-highest total by a UGA freshman in school history. Just as important, his 166 rebounds (5.2/game) were the tenth-best total by a UGA rookie and the most ever by a guard.
 Caldwell-Pope last year was also Georgia's leader in 3-point shots made (65) and taken (214).
In addition:
 KCP is the fourth-leading returning scorer in the SEC, behind Boynton (Fla.), Young (Ark.) and Golden (Tenn.).
 He is also the league's fifth-leading returning rebounder and its only guard among the group.
 He ranks second among all returning SEC players in minutes per game (32.1), behind only LSU guard Andre Stringer (32.2 mpg).
 True to form, Caldwell-Pope is the Bulldogs' only player thus far to average over 30 minutes per contest this season. He currently ranks 3rd in the SEC in minutes at 33.6 per game. Georgia's next most active player is Donte' Williams at 23.3 minutes per game.

Fox Best at Molding Talent
Blogger and hoops junkie Dan Hanner of RealGM.com penned an article in February of 2012 that anointed Georgia head coach Mark Fox as the top coach in college basketball at player development. In a blog entry, Hanner used a complex formula to rate college coaches. Among Hanner's many observations he writes, "Mark Fox has truly been fantastic at getting the most out of his players."

The top five in the Player Development category include Fox; Bo Ryan (Wisconsin); Craig Robinson (Oregon State); Lorenzo Romar (Washington); and Mike Montgomery (Cal).

Fox Also Tops at Producing Grads
Head Coach Mark Fox must also receive some degree of credit for developing high-performing students in the classroom. Since his arrival in April of 2009, no fewer than 12 Georgia basketball players have earned their undergraduate degrees, including all four seniors from 2012. Every player that has exhausted his eligibility at UGA under Fox has completed his degree.

Prominent among this group of 12 includes Damien Wilkins - nephew of UGA great Dominique Wilkins - whose last year of eligibility came in 2004 and who has played professionally in the NBA ever since.
2012-13 Bulldogs a Year Older

Year Four of the Mark Fox era at Georgia features his first roster comprised solely of players chosen by Fox and his staff. The Bulldogs of 2013 have a lone 3-year letterman in guard Vincent Williams, as well as two other seniors who took the junior-college route before arriving in Athens.
Last season the Bulldogs began the year with just two players that had experience as a starter on a Division I basketball team. This year, however, that number is now up to six, including four players that were regular starters at season's end. That quartet is comprised of two sophomores and two freshmen. In all, Georgia returns players who logged over 68 percent of its total minutes played in 2012.

Thornton Out Indefinitely
Junior forward Marcus Thornton will be out indefinitely after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery on Dec. 26. The native Atlantan has been plagued by injuries to both knees throughout his career in Athens. He missed five games last season because of knee surgery in December, and he underwent another surgery on his right knee immediately after the 2012 season ended, a process that kept him out of most off-season workouts.

When healthy, Thornton significantly enhances Georgia's frontcourt presence with his physical play. Before his latest setback, he had already set career highs in scoring and rebounding.

Georgia and the SEC
Following are a few tidbits about Georgia's history in the SEC:
 Georgia's all-time record in SEC games, covering 80 years, is 491-726 (.403). That ranks 10th of 12 SEC members (excluding Missouri and Texas A&M).
 Georgia can claim one SEC regular-season championship (1990), one regular-season divisional title (2002) and two SEC Tournament crowns (1983, 2008).
 Georgia has had just one AP SEC Player of the Year: Dominique Wilkins in 1981 and no POY, as voted by the league's coaches since 1987. Other superlative post-season awards include Coaches' SEC Defensive Player of the Year (Rashad Wright in 2004), AP SEC Newcomer of the Year (Jarvis Hayes in 2002), and Scholar-Athlete of the Year (Dave Bliss in 2008).
 Wilkins was the first of four Georgia players to lead the SEC in scoring at season's end. He averaged a league-best 23.6 points per game in 1981. Others to follow him have been Vern Fleming (19.8 ppg in 1984), Jumaine Jones (18.8 ppg in 1999) and Jarvis Hayes (18.6 ppg in 2002).
 Georgia has an all-time SEC Tournament record of 40-50. The 2008 tourney marked the first time since 1997 that Georgia has reached the finals.

Hayes Joins Bulldog Staff
A face familiar to Georgia basketball fans joined coach Mark Fox's staff during the offseason. Jonas Hayes, a 3-year letterman from 2002-04 and an `04 UGA graduate, was named as the Bulldogs' Operations Coordinator in May of 2012. Hayes, a native of Atlanta, had spent the previous five seasons as an assistant coach at Belmont Abbey in Belmont, N.C. He had also served brief stints as an assistant coach at South Carolina State, Morehouse and his alma mater, Douglass High School in Atlanta.
Hayes, whose twin brother Jarvis continues to play professionally overseas, became the first Georgia basketball alumnus to hold a full-time position on the staff at his alma mater since Shaun Golden was an administrative assistant on the staff in 1997.

Italy Trip a Valuable Tool
For the first time since 2004, Georgia ventured beyond U.S. borders for a tour of exhibition games. The Bulldogs spent the first half of August playing three games and checking out the major cities and tourist spots in Italy. They also visited UGA's art school campus in Cortona, Italy.
Georgia went 2-1 on its tour of games, winding up with a 17-point victory on the same day they visited the Colosseum in Rome. Given the anticipated roles of Georgia's freshmen this coming season, perhaps more important than the trip were the 10 practices that preceded the Bulldogs' departure overseas.